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Topography of Literature in the 1990s and the Discourse of Feminist Literature

Youngin Seo 1

1충남대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

The aim of this essay is to demonstrate the features and meaning of discourse in feminist literature in the 1990s. This essay scrutinizes the features of discourse in feminist literature, specifically relating to the ‘literary criticism field’ which constructs literary discourse and exerts its public and social influences on the whole process of the production and consumption of literature. The topography of literature in the 1990s was one of change from the featuring of various subjects that was prevalent in the 1980s towards intellectual, male-centered literature. Feminist research and critic groups of the 1980s could not play a leading role in producing literary discourse in the 1990s. This meant that feminist literature, despite its emergence as a significant subject in the literature of the 1990s, was met with ‘exclusion’ and ‘separation’ in its entry to the field of literary criticism. Notwithstanding the appearance of some remarkable female writers, the discourse on feminist literature only repeated the logic of pre-existing gender separation or defined ‘feminity’ only as a counterpart of masculinity. Too much attention of literary criticism field on Shin, Kyeong-Sook and too much disregard from the field on Gong, Ji-Young shows the limitations of criticism of feminist literature in the 1990s in that it could not delve concretely into the reality of the women of the time. Through a critical approach on the discourse of feminist literature, this essay can reexamine the 1990s from a historical viewpoint and confirm the start point to perform the task of researching female subject assigned to the present Korean Literature.

Citation status

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